William Kristol, acknowledging that the Democratic primary is over, lays out today in The New Times, the basis for how Republicans are going to run against an Obama candidacy. It is very well done, but should not be a problem for the Obama campaign to counter.
In fact, the ease with which it can be countered shows the power of Sen. Obama’s message. It is important to understand this message and how to use it for all Democratic campaigns in the run up to November.
More below.
The title of Kristol’s piece is "It’s All About Him". It runs through the standard story of why Sen. Obama quit wearing the flag lapel pin:
What’s striking is that Obama couldn’t resist a grandiose explanation. Obama’s unnecessary and imprudent statement impugns the sincerity or intelligence of those vulgar sorts who still choose to wear a flag pin. But moral vanity prevailed. He wanted to explain that he was too good — too patriotic! — to wear a flag pin on his chest.
He then moves on to Michelle’s infamous "proud of America" remark:
For as she had argued in the Wisconsin speech, America’s illness goes far beyond a flawed political process: . . . . "Barack Obama is the only person in this race who understands that, that before we can work on the problems, we have to fix our souls. Our souls are broken in this nation."
But they can be repaired. Indeed, she had said a couple of weeks before, in Los Angeles: "Barack Obama ... is going to demand that you shed your cynicism. That you put down your divisions. That you come out of your isolation, that you move out of your comfort zones. That you push yourselves to be better. And that you engage. Barack will never allow you to go back to your lives as usual, uninvolved, uninformed."
So we don’t have to work to improve our souls. Our broken souls can be fixed — by our voting for Barack Obama. We don’t have to fight or sacrifice to help our country. Our uninvolved and uninformed lives can be changed — by our choosing Barack Obama. America can become a nation to be proud of — by letting ourselves be led by Barack Obama.
He closes with a clear statement of the theme that the Republicans will be using from now to November:
Barack Obama is an awfully talented politician. But could the American people, by November, decide that for all his impressive qualities, Obama tends too much toward the preening self-regard of Bill Clinton, the patronizing elitism of Al Gore and the haughty liberalism of John Kerry?
It’s fitting that the alternative to Obama will be John McCain. He makes no grand claim to fix our souls. He doesn’t think he’s the one everyone has been waiting for. He’s more proud of his country than of himself. And his patriotism has consisted of deeds more challenging than "speaking out on issues."
When I first read this it scared the poop out of me because I thought it sounded pretty effective. But then I realized that over the past few years I have inculcated a Hillary Clinton mindset and gotten caught up in "negative branding" and other aspects of partisan politics.
I have always supported Obama (with both my vote and donations), but until after Super Tuesday, I never really believed he could win. I was way too old and cynical, i.e., my "soul was broken". (I also live in Florida, which is another story.)
It wasn’t until I started realizing that Obama was really going to do it and I went back and reread Andrew Sullivan’s seminal "Why Obama Matters" that the deeper aspects of his message ("we are the change that we seek") began to make their way into my psyche.
So, after that initial scare passed, I realized that Kristol was playing into Obama’s hands. That’s the beauty and significance of Sen. Obama’s message, you can’t effectively go negative on him.
Here is my take on how to respond to Kristol:
William Kristol wants to continue the divisive, mean-spirited politics of the past. He wants to inflame the false notion that we are all split up into "red states" and "blue states" and the people in one should fear and hate the people in the other. But America is bigger and better than that.
We are tired of The Same Old Politics and their destructiveness. We want to turn the page on them, and show ourselves and the world that America is truly a place of hope. This campaign is about how all of us, Black, White, or Brown, rich, poor, or middle class, East Coast, West Coast or Midwestern, can work together to make America, and the world, a better place.
You get the idea.
It is a truism that swing voters decide elections. And it is precisely swing voters that are most turned off by the partisan battles. And while Kristol’s piece is a brilliant example of Republican reframing, it’s not going to do the trick come November.
Yes We Can.